[All Platforms][Music] HiFi Quality - Lossless Streaming 16bit 44.1khz

[timiambeing]

I've just started a trial of Qobuz - they offer the standard 320kbps as well as lossless FLAC streaming (and high res downloads if you purchase them) the sound quality is noticeably better and on classical it's just wonderful to get all that resolution through your hi-fi or headphones! The catalogue has a way to go to get to Spotify's level, but they are getting there. The iPad app isn't' too bad (the desktop app is in need of an upgrade but I hear they are putting all their efforts into mobile apps right now).

So - lossless streaming - if Qobuz can do it then so can Spotify, they must have the same source - and obviously if you are asking £20 a month then those record labels and distributors take enough notice to make the high res tracks available for streaming. What this all means is soon, very soon, we will get lossless streaming and closely followed by high res downloads - but if Spotify aren't careful it will be Apple who get there first with an audiophile premium offering, and when they do it will be a much harder market place to make money in!

** please don't lump this suggestion with the main one on lossless downloads, that's a different idea entirely guys!

[timiambeing]

I've just started a trial of Qobuz - they offer the standard 320kbps as well as lossless FLAC streaming (and high res downloads if you purchase them) the sound quality is noticeably better and on classical it's just wonderful to get all that resolution through your hi-fi or headphones! The catalogue has a way to go to get to Spotify's level, but they are getting there. The iPad app isn't' too bad (the desktop app is in need of an upgrade but I hear they are putting all their efforts into mobile apps right now).

[timiambeing]

So - lossless streaming - if Qobuz can do it then so can Spotify, they must have the same source - and obviously if you are asking £20 a month then those record labels and distributors take enough notice to make the high res tracks available for streaming. What this all means is soon, very soon, we will get lossless streaming and closely followed by high res downloads - but if Spotify aren't careful it will be Apple who get there first with an audiophile premium offering, and when they do it will be a much harder market place to make money in!

[ajmarini]

Also, this feature was requested in 2014...over 7 years ago. We all said the competition would overtake them with this feature. We were right.

Now we are saying that the competition will overtake them in the market. This will also come to fruition if they don't act now.

[LawLee]

What can the problem be, and why so much silence? Spotify is arguably the most successful music streaming service to date. They subsidized their service by providing a free ad-based service. So they make money on their subscribers whether or not they pay for the service. This was a smart move because clearly their features won people over from other services like them such as Pandora.

Clearly paid subscribers go right into their bottom line and most services have a $9.95 offering. So that must be the point at which a service can be profitable structurally. It can't be content conversion. Other services say that record companies supply them music at CD quality or higher for them to stream.  It can't be a bandwidth issue because even the small guys like Qobuz who get the worst breaks on bandwidth are distributing hi-res music. 

I'm spitballing here, but maybe we're looking at this from the wrong perspective. Spotify Connect was introduced in September 2013. Arguably at the time, it was the most forward-thinking solution. Devices like our cell phones, even speakers, TVs and my Yamaha receivers can directly connect to the Internet and Spotify connect, so they're not bandwidth limited through transmission by the music source player (your phone) or Wi-Fi or Bluetooth the way that Airplay is. Brilliant.  

So if the issue of hifi is not Internet bandwidth, local transmission bandwidth, cost, or music material based, what does that leave? Spotify Connect. Spotify Connect as a protocol was designed at a time when the idea of high-res music, and multi-channel music was not a concern. I have never seen a published specification on Spotify connect anywhere. No description of its bandwidth limitations or the number of channels that it can support. 

Perhaps it's just a bitstream like PCM which is decoded by the device, which I hope is true. But if that is true and it's a decoded bitstream that's limited to stereo or to perhaps 44.1kHz then it makes sense why they made the announcement about CD quality not hi-res. For me I would not care. If Spotify would give me CD quality add a true maximum of 1411kbs, like the CD I would be happy. 

If it is a bitstream protocol that has to be decoded by the device then unfortunately all the devices released with Spotify connect built in have been hard coded to process their bitstream. This means my receiver and all of the millions of devices that are using Spotify Connect currently have a built in limitation. 

No problem, give us Hifi now. Next year you can give us Spotify Connect 2 with 192khz HiRes and Dolby Atmos support. Or work with the vendors that to release firmware to bypass this whatever limitations there are. Apple released Airplay 2 after all. I believe Sonos did something similar. This was done likely to address their limitations on their aging protocols. While looking forward, at the same time they need to keep supporting the Spotify Connect classic protocol on all these legacy devices and everybody should be happy. 

But talk about what's going on. Without doing so you're leaving folks like me who are fans of your service to wonder, and wander. Personally, I've tried Dolby Atmos on all of the services that offer it and honestly I don't find it compelling. But what I do find compelling is listening to a recording like “Bohemian Rhapsody” in hi-res stereo. On my home theater it's breathtaking. So either release Hifi now, or tell us why it's delayed. Otherwise your user base is going to continue to accelerate in its decline. Don't get me wrong I'm a fan I want you to succeed. I had been happy with the service overall. All we want is a little transparency.

[inetbas]

Broken promises are a bad thing to do… leaving Spotify again. Back to Apple with an Apple One family account. More features for the same price.  Even storage and games. Already having Timely provided lyrics and lossless audio streaming to my av-set.   2022 means bye bye Spotify for me and likely many. When breaking  a promise, you break a bond.

Once I have sorted that Airplay works in a simple way also with my new Philips OLED806 Android TV in combo with my av-receiver for my household, we all leave Spotify planet  and join Apple One family.  I am the only 100% android user in the family, the other family members mostly have Apple gear. 

[BrooksChen]

I have nothing to say ....

Bye ~

[tatted85]

That was a cute marketing gimmick.  Just canceled my premium subscription.  Spotify sucks

[decooney]

I canceled too.

[RobotWarrior]

When will be available for the free user a quality  audio lossless.  how is it that free users have the audio quality in mp3 while we can have the audio quality in cd. it is necessary that all spotify users including free users must have to lossless audio quality.

[LawLee]

Wow did you notice how the originator of this post topic nailed it. timiambeing said on ‎2014-03-02:

"but if Spotify aren't careful it will be Apple who get there first with an audiophile premium offering, and when they do it will be a much harder market place to make money in!"

unfortunately it's not just Apple it's everybody who got into the audiophile marketplace except for Spotify.

timiambeing last posted in 2015. It seems he moved on to Tidal or something else. It's sad to think that Spotify has been dragging their feet on this for close to 8 years??? I for one feel like timiambeing. Life is too short not to fully enjoy your music. Spotify has the capability but not the will to do it.

Both with my wired headphones and home theater systems I hear a substantial improvement with CD quality or above. I think CD quality is the sweet spot. I don't believe most can on headphones hear the difference between CD and hi-rez music. However even on a low to mid fi home theater system you can hear improvement at every step between 44.1kHz, 96kHz and 192kHz. After auditioning the music on my monitoring system in my office, which sits on my desk I have become a true believer in CD to hi-rez music.

When COVID hit, I built a workstation for mastering video and audio. I've decided to retire my weak Logitech 5.1 computer speaker system. For a little more than Logitech's top line Z906 (at the time about $400.00 in my region) I was able to assemble a 5.1 AV reciever and speakers. It features a ELAC Cinema 5.1 Speaker System. Theres a 8" ported inch subwoofer under my desk. The five speaker setup symmetrically surrounds my noggin. It's all powered by a Yamaha Aventage RX-A780 receiver.

With Spotify I was contemplating replacing these ELAC speakers with Prime satellites and subwoofer from SVS. Not a cheap upgrade for my desk workstation. Since Spotify was delaying release of Hifi I decided to debut Qobuz, something that some of my snobbish audiophile friends recommended. I was blown away with the difference in treble brightness, imaging and also low end punch. 

I didn't need a new set up I needed a different streaming service. Right now I am paying for Amazon Unlimited and Qobuz. So I'm paying close to $23 a month to have all the features I want. Think about that Spotify. That means probably I'd happily be willing to pay $14.99-19.99 to your service for the pleasure of Hifi.

Right now you got nothing that can feed my systems. So I can't feed your money machine. I have relegated Spotify to where I used to have Pandora; cooking music or garden party background music. But honestly I'd rather not even use your free service because that means I'm still subsidizing you. I'd be happy to pay you for value I want but since 12-26 when I cancelled my service I haven't even used the ad based service. First it was out of upset, but now it out of ambivalence. I realize I don't find your features as compelling as CD to Hi-res quality music.

I'd love to be motivated to come back, but you really need to step up. Being the only major player who's not offering lossless music is going to hurt you this year. I'm not willing to wait around anymore for you guys to deliver.

[Will1831]

well the more I read and wait about it, the more it's clear to me that if Spotify quickly became a leader in the audio streaming market (maybe even a disruptor back in the day), they are not even followers or adaptor now. Not in terms of lossless strategy. They didn't (couldn't) deny the need for lossless streaming but clearly they failed keeping the lead on this one. (intentionally i'm sure)

An other issue being that, with the bandwidth availability these days and in most countries, lossless will become the new standard sooner rather than later. 

It isn't the same about podcasting, on which their strategy seemed to be focused on. Probably not a bad idea, business wise, as this would probably (I imagine) bring many new subscribers mainly looking for this. It's not my thing (although I've listen to many of them on spotify) but i can imagine this could be a key advantage for some of us out there.

[PaulMac]

Does anyone else think the way Spotify have (mis)handled this sets a new standard?

I mean they are always keen to portray themselves a customer focused company, going as far to name their FB and Twitter support sites as 'SpotifyCares'

'

The reality of course is very different. Anyone who has visited the really big threads over the past few years will have realised very quickly that Spotify don't care at all about what their customers want. Idea after idea (eg. the 10k song limit or bring back lyrics) will run literally for years with absolutely nothing in terms of feedback from Spotify themselves. They simply don't give a monkeys!

This time though they've even managed to outdo themselves in terms of dire customer support. For once they issued a statement that specified an actual implementation date. Yes the statement itself was vague but that date was there leaving no doubt that HiFi would be rolling out in at least some regions before the end of 2021. Surely it would just be a matter of time before it was available to everyone?

The rest of course is history. No HiFi anywhere and just a single report on Golem.de supposedly from a Spotify spokesperson saying they're still looking forward to offering HiFi in the future but this time there's no date. Will it ever happen? Meanwhile the official thread (this one) is still running with the update from last March saying the upgrade is coming - in 2021!

Even by Spotify standards this is complete and utter clusterf**k. At times it almost seems they are intentionally going out of their way to annoy their own customers.